USE OF PRIVATE INFORMATION POLICY (GDPR)

Last updated: 21/12/2018

Summary:

We respect the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and this policy explains how we collect and treat any information you give us. You won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. We’ve no desire to trick you into agreeing to something you might later regret.

Our policy covers

1. Why we value your privacy

2. How we collect information

3. What information we hold

4. Where we store your information

5. What we use your information for

6. Who’s responsible for your information at our company

7. Who has access to information about you

8. The steps we take to keep your information private

9. How to complain

10. Changes to the policy

 

Why we value your privacy

We value your privacy as much as we do our own, so we’re committed to keeping your personal and business information safe. We’re uncomfortable with the information companies, governments, and other organisations keep on file, so we ask for only the minimum from our customers. We’ll never use your personal information for any reason other than why you gave it, and we’ll never give anyone access to it unless we’re required to by law.

How we collect information

We ask for contact information including your name, email address, and phone number, on our website so that we can reply to your enquiry.

When you visit our website, we collect data that is not personally identifiable including your IP address, operating system and browser. This information is aggregated to record general location, number of visits, average time spent on site, pages viewed, etc. We use this information to monitor and improve our website and services.

We may use cookies to collect this data and to provide you with tailored information (such as autofilling certain fields). “Cookies” are tiny elements of data that a website can send to your browser, which may then be stored on your hard drive so we can recognise you when you return.

We collect your email address when you sign up for one of our newsletters.

Occasionally, we might receive your contact information from one of our partners. If we do, we protect it in exactly the same way as if you give it to us directly.

What information we hold

When you contact us by email or through our website, we collect your name, email address, phone number, and a social media username, if you’ve given us that.

If you sign up for a newsletter, we only collect your name and email address.

If you do business with us, we also collect your business name and bank details and keep records of the invoices we send you and the payments you make.

Where we store your information

When you contact us by email or through our website, we store your your information in our email accounts, hosted by Hover (Tucows.com Co.) and Google (Google LLC). If you sign up for a newsletter, we store your email address in MailChimp (The Rocket Science Group LLC), which is the marketing platform we prefer. If we do business, we store your information in our accounts software, Apple iCloud Numbers. We chose these systems partly for their commitment to security.

What we use your information for

We occasionally use your contact information to send you details of our updates, products and services. When we do, you have the option to unsubscribe from these communications and we won’t send them to you again. We might also email or phone you about our products and services, but if you tell us not to, we won’t get in touch again. We will use your information to send you invoices, statements, or reminders.

Who’s responsible for your information at our company

Our Privacy Officer is responsible for the security of your information. You can contact them by email at enquiries@homesavers.charity if you have any concerns about the information we store.

Who has access to information about you

When we store information in our own systems, only the people who need it have access. Our management team have access to everything you’ve provided, but individual employees have access to only what they need to do their job.

The steps we take to keep your information private

Where we store your information in third-party services, we restrict access only to people who need it. We store passwords in 1Password, an encrypted password manager, use a different, randomly generated password for each service, and never use the same password twice.

The computers we use are all encrypted using FileVault and are protected by a passcode or fingerprint access. These computers ask for authentication whenever they’re started or after 5 minutes of inactivity. Our mobile devices are also protected by a fingerprint or facial recognition.

How to complain

We take complaints very seriously. If you’ve any reason to complain about the ways we handle your privacy, please contact our Privacy Officer by email at enquiries@homesavers.charity

Changes to the policy

If we change the contents of this policy, those changes will become effective the moment we publish them on our website.